Another green-tech stimulus recipient going under?

posted at 5:21 pm on June 19, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

It won’t be the first, if so … and probably not the last, either. Battery maker A123 got more than $250 million in taxpayer subsidies from Barack Obama’s green-tech stimulus, specifically to produce a robust amount of product for Obama’s promised explosion of electric vehicles. Unfortunately, the only thing exploding are A123′s losses. CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson reports that the company’s latest SEC filings admit “substantial doubt” about A123′s future — even while it spends the remaining $100 million in taxpayer-guaranteed funds (via The Right Scoop):

Herrera was among 1,000 workers who landed jobs at A123. CBS News spoke with CEO David Vieau last fall. “Approximately half the people here were unemployed, so we put people back to work,” he said.

A123 was forced to launch an expensive recall — its second in four months. With $621 million in net losses since 2009, the company disclosed in SEC filings last month that there was “substantial doubt” about its “ability to continue.”

A123 has declined further interview requests.

I’ll bet. The company wanted to do nothing but talk about a supposed major breakthrough on car batteries, but since the cars themselves aren’t selling, it’s mainly an academic point. Even if A123 achieved a real breakthrough, it would take years to turn it into practical use, and clearly A123 doesn’t have years on its current trajectory.

Looks like the track record of government picking losers and losers continues. Perhaps we should get the last $100 million out of A123 before it follows Solyndra into oblivion.

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Can you imagine having one of the sensuous Fisker bricks in your garage? Its one thing to have an expensive gas guzzling muscle car but having a expensive powerless electric muscle car is just so Obama.

I’m thinking that the only impetus behind funding these companies was just to get them started, not to help them develop a sustainable business model. There are certainly some rich folks out there that made a killing off this green bubble, I would think. Now...all these bankruptcies…. what is going on??. I sense a pattern–it smells like fail, but was it made to look that way? I’m cynical and think that there is more than meets the eye.

… I have another name to teach my son that explains why he is $250,000 in debt at nine years old.

Seven Percent Solution on June 19, 2012 at 5:27 PM

Expensive lesson don’t you think? Homeschool? Private? Public? Either of those would be cheap by comparison. ; ) Imagine the education little 7% could have with 250k, Now remind every liberal you know, on a daily basis. three times a day if you have the chance. I do.

We need a list along with loan guarentee amounts and the jobs created and then destroyed. It should include the time between the guarentee and the bankruptcy and how many people in the government warned the Government not to give the recipient money.

Even if A123 achieved a real breakthrough, it would take years to turn it into practical use, and clearly A123 doesn’t have years on its current trajectory.

This is a sad but true reality. In A123′s case, they were probably rushed to get results and ended up introducing a product that should be tested and refined for another few years.

For other innovations, this current government is geared toward discouraging progress. It takes immense amounts of money, back-scratching, and lobbying to get a new idea into the market. The USPTO is a racket where the examiners continually move the goalposts for inventors by “inventing” new reasons to drag out the process and generate fees. The EPA places more and more impossible hurdles in front of innovators. The Underwriter’s Lab is a crock, along with the FDA. It’s all a big shakedown.

The company wanted to do nothing but talk about a supposed major breakthrough on car batteries, but since the cars themselves aren’t selling, it’s mainly an academic point. Even if A123 achieved a real breakthrough, it would take years to turn it into practical use, and clearly A123 doesn’t have years on its current trajectory.

hell, we can talk academically on the supposed benefits of an advanced car battery here on HotAir—and occasionally, we do–and far cheaper I might add. I do believe that an academic exercise needs to be conducted on these companies and that is a post mortem examination of the money trails from funding requests to grants, to now where’s the $$ at……?

I’m thinking that the only impetus behind funding these companies was just to get them started, not to help them develop a sustainable business model. There are certainly some rich folks out there that made a killing off this green bubble, I would think. Now…all these bankruptcies…. what is going on??. I sense a pattern–it smells like fail, but was it made to look that way? I’m cynical and think that there is more than meets the eye.

ted c on June 19, 2012 at 5:38 PM

Money laundering. The money goes through these companies and winds up in Democrat campaigns around the country.

Perhaps we should get the last $100 million out of A123 before it follows Solyndra into oblivion.

But then the board members and top executives (a/k/a Obama donors) wouldn’t get their multi-million dollar bonuses, and that seems to be the only point of propping up these companies with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars before they go bust.

Ohmigosh! Who would have thought that cronies were behind Fisker battery design?

Government Motors: Purchase $102,000 vehicle. Toss in $10,000 more to get a battery replacement in 3-4 years. Leave the car off the charger for 3 months during the winter -or- use an extension cord for the charger, and voila the battery is bricked. The wheels on a Karma lock when the battery is dead, so getting it to the dealer is a prob. When you do get there, you are told that you need to spring for a new $40,000 battery pack, and the money you paid for battery replacement won’t cover it.

You know what else won’t cover a $40,000 repair? An auto loan. Pony up in cash, please. You havenot been warned.

Ironically, A123 builds batteries in Michigan, where you can’t use a batter powered car for about 9 months of the year because it’s so cold. When it get to be 10 to 30 below zero, batteries don’t work very well and anywhere 100 miles north of Detroit, it’s that for at least 5 months of the year and can be in the 20′s any month of the year.